JOHNSTON, Rhode Island, May 17, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The risk of cyber attack, once overhyped, now threatens businesses' very existence. Its severity varies significantly with geography: For example, inherent cyber risk has climbed in France over the past year while plummeting in Taiwan, two of the biggest changes in cyber risk in the 2018 FM Global Resilience Index.

The index—an annual ranking of 130 countries and territories by the resilience of their business environments—is an online, interactive resource to help global executives plan where to do business. Cyber risk is one of 12 drivers determining the index's overall resilience rankings.

"Our mission is to give global business executives powerful intelligence to support their decisions about where to site facilities, what partners to select, and how to manage their risks," said Thomas A. Lawson, chairman and chief executive officer at FM Global, one of the world's largest commercial and industrial property insurers. "With the Resilience Index, business leaders can dig deeper than they ever have into geographical differences in resilience, including cyber risk."

The index reflects data related to economics, natural hazards and supply chains, and addresses deep concerns about business risks such as cyber attacks, political upheaval, fire and hurricanes. Resilience, the flipside of risk, means resisting business disruption and rebounding quickly if it occurs.

France fell 33 places in the cyber resilience dimension of this year's index from 68th to 101st of 130 regions. The drop reflects a deterioration in civil liberties within the country rating and a slight uptick in the country's internet penetration.

Internet penetration also explains Australia's nine-place fall in cyber resilience. The country and continent dropped from 66th to 75th of the 130 regions ranked in the Index, driven by a 3-percent increase in internet penetration.

Taiwan'scyber resilience, on the other hand, soared 57 places from 107th to 50th, the biggest rise in the index, due in large part to an increase in its civil liberties.